Indiana department of education Charter School Marketing

1. Indiana department of education Charter School Marketing Lead nurturing and social media February 12th , 2019

2. About Bright Minds Marketing and Nick LeRoy Bright Minds Marketing • Boutique marketing firm specializing in helping schools improve their student enrollment. • Over 60 clients in 9 states Nick LeRoy, founder and principal consultant • 2 years as ED of the Indiana Charter School Board • 15 years as a global marketing executive with Eli Lilly & Co. • MBA (with honors) from Emory University

3. Our series Full Day Training Session: February 19th at The Excel Center Hammond. 8:30 am – 3:30 pm RSVP to avora@doe.in.gov

4. Your resources https://www.doe.in.gov/grants/school-marketing-and-webinars

5. Lead Nurturing and social media Social Media Lead nurturing

6. Parents “buying journey” Parents are aware of your school and believe that they can attend your school When a parent engages with you, they are convinced that this is the right place for their student The attributes of your school (your story) are compelling and the parent feels that it is a good match for their student The student enrolls and shows up the first day The parent and student remain convinced that this is the best school for their family

7. Parents “buying journey” Parents are aware of your school and believe that they can attend your school They are willing to take the next step and engage with you: attend an event, schedule a tour, visit your campus Your story is compelling enough that they are willing to give you their contact information You have engaged with the family in such a positive way that they want to enroll in your school They continue to believe that your school is the right place for their student.

8. Lead nurturing How effective is your lead nurturing? How effective are other schools at lead nurturing?

9. Don’t feel bad that you are nurturing them I AM NOT A SALES PERSON! Choosing a school is an incredibly stressful and emotional time for a parent You don’t get married on the first date

10. It starts with knowing who your Prospective Families are Your tools for identifying potential families Website • More information form • Lead magnet Social media advertising Partner or feeder schools Siblings of existing students Partner institutions (churches, Boys & Girls Clubs) Community events • Hosted events at your school • Summer programs • Word of mouth • Door to door canvasing • Traditional media • Etc.

11. Critical conversion points Moving the families who you have identified into one that engages with your school (tour, open house, shadow) Moving the families who have engaged with your school into enrolling their student

12. How lead nurturing can drive efficiencies Scenario 2 – Good nurturing Scenario 1 – Poor nurturing

13. Nurturing cadences General prospect  Touring Family Post tour (Simple / Complex)  Enrolled Family Post match on Enroll Indy (Indianapolis only)  Enrolled Family

14. GENERAL PROSPECT  TOURING FAMILY

15. TOUR / SHADOW NURTURING: BASIC • Within 1 week, follow up call from teacher of the future grade • Next week, follow up call from a parent • Next week, follow up call from an administrator Results: Yield rate increase from 76% to 92% (Net increase of 4 students)

16. Sign up for tour Sign up for shadow Day before the tour Day before the shadow Tour Shadow Day after the tour Day after the shadow 3 days post shadow 3 days post tour 7 days post shadow 7 days post tour 14 days post tour 14 days post tour Drops into regular quarterly cycle Drops into regular quarterly cycle • Link to recruitment video • Directions to the school • Testimonial from parent and student • Link to recruitment video 2 • Directions to the school / logistics • Testimonial from student TOUR / SHADOW NURTURING: SOPHISTICATED • Confirming attendance • Directions to the school • Confirming attendance • Directions to the school • Thank you for attending – from principal • Links to Enroll Indy • Thank you for attending – from principal • Links to shadowing (if didn’t sign up during tour) • Encouragement to shadow • Encouragement to Like us on Enroll Indy and/or match • Encouragement to shadow • Information about subjects that they showed an interest in while on the tour • Encouragement to Like us on Enroll Indy and/or match • Information about subjects that they showed an interest in while shadowing • Encourage to sign up on Enroll Indy and like the school • Encourage to sign up on Enroll Indy and like the school Tour or shadow

17. EMAIL CADENCE: POST MATCH ON ENROLL INDY • Match video congratulating them on being accepted to your school • Video from principal and student welcoming them to the school • Email that outlines the next steps for them to take to secure their spot • Directing to custom webpage for enrollment documentation • Event to gain engagement and ensure that they accept the placement

18. WHEN and how IS YOUR BEST way TO CONTACT? • Different customer types will be different • Text, email and phone calls will all work, it depends upon your customer and their preference • Try different ways to find the optimal mix Source: Harvard Business Review, The Best Practices for Lead Response Management

19. MARKETING ECOSYSTEM There are multiple potential consumer touch points – all need to be optimized to allow for lead identification and ultimate nurturing Nurturing Actions Attraction and identification Open House School visits Websites • Capture leads • Capture leads • Landing pages Community events Enroll CRM Nurturing Tour Nurturing Enrollment form for siblings • Capture leads • Capture leads Social media ads • Direct to a website landing page and capture leads Programs / events • Expose to campus • Capture leads Shadow Canvasing Student name, parent name, student age, parent email, parent phone • Capture leads

20. Tools needed for nurturing Technology Customer relationship management software • This can be substituted by a spreadsheet but it is not recommended • Options: Hubspot (Free), Infusionsoft, Salesforce (Free to non-profits) Commercial email system • Options: Some CRMs offer this, other options are Mailchimp, Constant Contact, MyEmma, etc. Integration software • Zapier More resources are available at: http://www.brightmindsmarketing.com/resources/

21. Next steps in lead nurturing Try a CRM software Select an email provider Upload your current prospect lists into your CRM / email system Assign a status to each prospect • Lead, toured, Enroll Indy Match Develop customized engagement cadences for each group • Email templates, phone script, standard principal thank you, etc.

22. Social Media

23. Social media Primarily a tool for your existing families, but does have value in enrollment marketing Supplement to your website and additional communication channel Key for creating word of mouth

24. The challenges of Social media Which platform should I prioritize my efforts? How do I build engagement in my social media? What sort of content should I be posting? Please give me more time! Who has the time to constantly be posting? How do I develop all of the content?

25. What is your social media strategy Foundational knowledge: Know your audience To inform your audience To engage your audience To support your audience To promote your school

26. Which Platform should I use? The Big 4 +1

27. Which Social Media Platform(s) should you prioritize? Use the ones your customers use • Age: 30 - 45 • African American • Household makes 100K Source: Pew Research

28. How often should you post? Facebook: 1 post per day Twitter: 15 Tweets per day Pinterest: 11 Pins per day Instagram: 1-2 posts per day Source: CoSchedule

29. What are your different types of content Daily pictures and events around the school Core information about the school Content that is not about the school specifically, but is about your brand Content that helps to position your school as a resource and a thought leader

30. Transactional vs. evergreen content Transactional content • Ephemeral and is designed to only be relevant for a short time • Examples; upcoming sporting event, picture of a class room, etc. • Daily content Evergreen content • Content that is designed to be reused over multiple iterations • Core information, brand content and resource content

31. Daily content Incorporate graphics as much as possible Go beyond a picture and use short videos Provide social media opportunities at events at your school

32. Core information Help your parents learn more about your school beyond their personal experience Help your parents develop a closer connection with your staff Understand traditions and special events Evergreen content

33. Core information about your school Academics

34. Core information about your school Faculty information

35. Core information: Don’t assume everyone understands your traditions Traditions

36. Brand Content What does you brand represent? How do you showcase your point of differentiation? Live this through social media Evergreen content

37. Brand content Purdue Polytechnic

38. Content that helps to position your school as a resource and a thought leader 66% of mothers who use social networks report searching for parenting advice in the past 30 days 59% of parents report that they have found useful parenting advice while looking at social media content in the last 30 days What are you an expert in?

39. Developing your Resource Content At the beginning of the year, assign each teacher/faculty member to write one 1,000 word blog post for your resource content • School librarian write a set of the best books by each grade • School tech person write an article about how to restrict internet access or the proper amount of screen time • School nurse write a monthly healthy tips or how to deal with changing hormones • Athletic director / coach writes about single support vs. dual sport • Resource teacher writing about additional tutoring opportunities in town • Etc., Etc,

40. How to build engagement Have good content • Relevant, timely, interesting • Contains their kids Present content in a way that people want • Posts that contain relevant visuals receive 94% more views • 67% of consumers say quality of visuals is very important when choosing a product • Facebook posts with photos have the highest engagement Don’t forget the technical side • Size your images correctly • Use alt tags to improve your SEO Have captions on your videos (Facebook is default muted) Make sure that you create alt tags with your school name in there

41. Creating Additional content #MotivationalMonday – Motivational quotes #TeacherTuesday – Teacher profiles #WowWednesday – Recognizing an outstanding student or teacher moment #ThrowbackThursday – Pictures of your teachers as children, historical pictures of your school #FridayFunFact – bit of trivia For the older grades, assign classes to research and create a social media post

42. Using an aggregator will save you time Allows you to cross post, schedule and monitor your social media feeds Hootsuite, MeetEdgar, Coschedule and Buffer

43. Building a content calendar Building the framework of a content calendar will help ensure a strong social media presence Preschedule (and pre-build) content and posts Don’t be afraid to reuse content

44. Content creation best practices and tools Design software • Canva • Adobe Spark • Ripl • Piktochart (Infographics) Image Resizing • https://resizeimage.net/ Headline reviewer • Coschedule • Content Support • QuotesCover • Video creation • Magisto • Photomontage builders • Animoto • GoAnimate • Kizoa • Diagnotic tools (Facebook) • https://likealyzer.com

45. Next steps on social media Identify your primary social media platforms based upon your customer and what she uses Develop your evergreen content Establish your content calendar Utilize an aggregator to cross post and schedule in advance

46. Our series

47. Thank you!!! Facebook.com/brightmindsmarketing @brightmindsmktg 531 W. 83rd Place, Indy, IN 46260 317-361-5255 nick@brightmindsmarketing.com